Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Cezanne

I probably should have blogged about this when it was fresher in my mind.Lucky you (the reader) will probably be treated to a shorter blog post this way.

So it was called "Cezanne and Beyond". It was an exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Museum. I went with my ma (you can read her account of the event on her blog here). We both enjoy art and it was a nice day.The drive over could have been a nightmare, we learned just before leaving there was some sort of Greek Parade going down the main street that takes you to the Museum. I had my little gps device with me, but I'm not 100% comfortable trusting that device, nor do I know the city well enough to go off the beaten paths. Luckily though, we missed any sort of traffic and got there in time. In fact, we got there about 40 minutes early... which as it turns out was a good thing, because it was super crowded!Oh, and yes... the art...I really enjoyed the exhibit. I learned that while I don't necessarily like everything Cezanne did, I did really enjoy a lot of his work. There was one that stood out above the others as one of my favorites. Unfortunately, In my rush to leave the house to avoid the parade, I forgot to bring a notpad and pencil to take any notes. Google to the rescue... it was called "The Bridge at Maincy". The above photo does not do the colors justice though. (I found the photo here on this website.)Now... here's the thing that really surprised me... since there were other artists shown in this exhibit, I got to see some other "masters" works. To my surprise I ended up really impressed with another artists work other than Cezanne... Mondrian! Sure, like most of you, I've seen the white checkerboards with splashes of red, yellow and blue. I thought that was all that Mondrian did! Well, I was wrong. Some of the paintings I saw were also geometrical in nature, but the colors and designs really impressed me! As a result, after the exhibit, while perusing the gift shop, I picked up a small book about Mondrian and not Cezanne (no offense Paul).Ok, I think I said something about keeping this short...Nutshell, a great day, appreciating fine art and learning other ways to see my world.And yes... I might just pick up my brush again and try a watercolor soon.

PS> I decided to join the museum for a one year membership. I HOPE I will be able to take advantage of this membership, and head over there on a regular basis, and explore what else the museum has to offer.

PS2> I also learned that there is an artist that I really did NOT like... Henri Matisse (wiki).A few others that I DID enjoy: Georges Braque, Jasper Johns, Alberto Giacometti, Charles Demuth, Ellsworth Kelly (some of kelly's stuff I liked).